The Sugar Shack — Restaurant in Bemidji

I can’t stand this place. I have given them multiple attempts and been disappointed every single time I’ve gone. Their shake/malt ordering system is a complete disaster. Absolutely nowhere on their menu does it say that you can get a chocolate or a vanilla malt, they just assume that everybody knows that you can. Their add-ons and mix-ins are also confusing and just give you a headache trying to figure it out.

The food is absolutely terrible. It’s also ungodly overpriced. It is absolutely the cheapest frozen pre-cooked food that you can buy from any average distributor. The fries are unseasoned, The sampler basket has way too much variety, which normally wouldn’t be a bad thing, but you either get 10 different things in super small portions, or one thing that’s an average portion but overpriced.

The atmosphere in here doesn’t feel like a restaurant at all. The ordering system is also a complete disaster. There is no take a number system or anything, it’s just wait in line, which of course is right by the entrance, and tell them what you want, hope they don’t mess it up, and then either stand, hovering by the register, waiting for them to bring you the food, or to sit down, wait for them to hopefully remember who you are, and then call you up to the counter to grab your food.

They also have a stupid souvenir cup return type deal. Whether you want the souvenir temperature changing cup, or not, you pay for it whenever you order anything. Then they incentivize you to come back and bring your old cup back for $1 off your next one. Not only is that unhygienic, but the souvenir cups should be optional, and they should just have disposable paper cups.

There’s also a gimmick souvenir section that takes up almost half the restaurant. If they actually wanted to be a restaurant, they very easily could have used half of that section for a bigger kitchen and produced decent quality affordable food. Instead is just a tourist trap where people from the cities drive by it, then they stop in to get ice cream, and are fine with paying the absurdly high prices because that is what they normally pay down in the cities, maybe they’ll pick up a cheap souvenir, and then continue their journey up to Bemidji.

I don’t expect this place will survive longer than 12 to 18 months. It’s always dead inside whenever I stopped in, and the employees seem to have a pretty high turnover rate. Of the three or four times that I stopped in, it was over the course of a few months, and every single time, there was a new employee who didn’t know how to run the register, or how to answer any of the questions that I had in regards to the food. I don’t know exactly what this place is trying to be, whether it’s a restaurant, ice cream parlor that happens to serve food, a souvenir shop that happens to serve food, or something else entirely, but it does absolutely none of it well.

I sincerely hope that they focus their effort to one specific thing and do it well. But if you have not stopped in here before, I can promise you that you will need to lower your expectations before you walk in that door, otherwise you will be severely disappointed with...

Pretty strange way to order food...at the door. Cashier was super friendly. But, chicken sandwich lacked flavor, bun ice cold, lettuce was brown and wilted. Fries good. Chicken wings were so so. Atmosphere was non existent. Decided to give it a try and was disappointed. Not sure if I want to...

Great little shop! Convenient location, fast service, a great selection of affordable food and ice cream. We’ve gone a couple times and both times everything was great. Definitely...